Sony has been struggling to find out a way to keep the Men in Black franchise alive over the past couple of years with strange rumours about a potential crossover with the 21 Jump Street series continuing to persist. Several leaked emails from the Sony hack in late 2014 revealed that it was under discussion with Jonah Hill even calling the idea “clean and rad and powerful.” A couple of years later, it was being reported that James Bobin (The Muppets) had signed on to direct, but Jonah Hill later commented that it was unlikely to happen because of overly complicated deals (among other things). Now we are hearing that a new Men in Black movie is still happening but it won’t be a crossover after all. Hit the jump for the full scoop.

According to Deadline, Sony is fast-tracking a new Men in Black movie, setting a release date of May 17th, 2019. The script was written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (Iron Man, Transformers: The Last Knight) and is said to be “true to the core of the MiB world and yet expands the franchise to a fresh new place.” Steven Spielberg is on board as executive producer and the studio is currently meeting with directors.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are not expected to reprise their roles as Agents J and K and instead the story will focus on “new characters chasing villains that put the picture on more of a global scale than the two previous films.” Comparisons are being made to Jurassic World and the way that it expanded on a previous trilogy of films. While there are plenty of fun things you could do with the world, it’s hard to imagine a Men in Black film without that key dynamic between Smith and Jones. Do you think a Men in Black spin-off is a good idea?